A victory for the Lib Dems and common sense

I have blogged previously on the 46% price hike for households buying both a residents and visitors permit HERE.

Cllr Parker challenged this when it was discussed at committee stage, we have since written to the cabinet and this week spoke at cabinet.  Thanks to Lib Dem pressure, the portfolio holder announced that plans to increase the residents permit for this year were scrapped and that the new charge for visitors permits was going to be at a lower rate of £5.

The net effect of these changes are as follows;

	Current charge	Original proposal	New proposal
Resident only	£24	£25 (4%)	£24 (0%)
Residents and visitors permit	£24	£35 (46%)	£29 (21%)
Visitors permit	£0	£10	£5

The Council have also agreed to waive the visitors permit fee for residents over 75

I still think the Council could find a fairer approach and I have proposed some that, accept the need to charge for visitors permit to cover the administration cost, but would result in a fairer 4% increase for most residents. 

However we have won significant concessions, once again, it is only the Liberal Democrats who will stand up for the large number of residents in Eastrop and Brookvale who are spared the higher ‘town centre tax’.

Note:  To my knowledge none of the Labour Councillors representing Norden have never publicly opposed the original increase, perhaps they agreed with it or they were relying on Lib Dems to the hard work for them, but the good news is, thanks to Lib Dem action, lower charges will apply to schemes in that area as well.